“Heavy Automatic Gunfire” As Ferguson Burns

Within moments of the announcement that Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson would not be charged for shooting robbery and assault suspect Michael Brown the first police car was set on fire by rioters.

Violent protests erupted for hours after it was announced that the grand jury has chosen not to indict officer Darren Wilson in the death of Michael Brown.

Officers reported heavy automatic gunfire in the area of W. Florissant and Canfield, police said. A University City police officer was shot at the intersection of Canton Avenue and Lamb Avenue, according to police.

Asst. Fire Chief Steve Fair with the Ferguson Fire Department said they found structure fires along the corridor of Florissant, West Florissant, and Halls Ferry roads.

“We have been fighting approximately 25 structure fires tonight, along with a car dealership where we lost 10 cars that were burned up,” said Fair.

News accounts are scattered and chaotic.

At least several dozen rioters have been arrested, and multiple news accounts are reporting that hundreds of shots fired. Fortunately there have not yet been any confirmed deaths.

Amusingly, one of the agitators who has been blaming the police for the violence had his phone stolen from him by another agitator while he was live-streaming the riots.

Authorities released the grand jury evidence and statements after St. Louis County Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch attempted to explain the reasoning for the verdict, including why of the “eyewitness accounts” that drove the August rioting and myth-making fell apart when alleged eyewitnesses admitted under oath that they didn’t actually see the shooting but were just repeating rumors when they were confronted with physical evidence that conflicted their stories. Among the other items of testimony from the grand jury investigation is the testimony of Police Officer Darren Wilson, who waived his Fifth Amendment rights to answer questions for the jury.

Wilson claimed that Brown attacked him in his vehicle and tried to take his gun, and then later was shot and killed as he attempted to charge the officer.

Wilson’s claim is backed by physical evidence including three autopsies, and eyewitness claims of a half-dozen eyewitnesses who claimed they saw Michael Brown advance upon Wilson as the Officer told him to stop.

Bob Owens is the Editor of BearingArms.com.
Bob is a graduate of roughly 400 hours of professional firearms training classes, including square range and force-on force work with handguns and carbines. He is a past volunteer instructor with Project Appleseed. He most recently received his Vehicle Close Quarters Combat Instructor certification from Centrifuge Training, and is the author of the short e-book, So You Want to Own a Gun.
He can be found on Twitter at bob_owens.
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